Platforms & BYOD

Engineers from INSA Lyon need to apply theoretical elements to develop their skills. We provide three advanced technological platforms for our students, and take a BYOD approach for their individual equipment.

Technological platforms

• Network platforms: two rooms reserved for networks studies enable us to simulate the major infrastructures of modern Internet. IP core networks, Communications centres, DataCentres and CDNs are modern infrastructures that our students need to master when they complete the TC training.
• Radiocommunications platform: this room is reserved for signal management, simulation and analysis equipment. It enables us to build the skills required to transmit information between transmitters and receptors. We use solid transmission tools (USRP, GnuRadio) rather than using result simulation tools (Matlab, Simulik) so that our students can face the reality of the field. 
• IoT platform: the department’s “showcase” room contains a sensor network infrastructure that we use in a few subjects to illustrate the use of the Internet of Things in the future of telecommunications.
• Robot platform: this same “showcase” room houses a fleet of 2D robots (turtle bots) and 3D robots (drones) that enable us to teach about robot fleet synchronisation and artificial intelligence, which is often related.  

Unified BYOD approach

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach invites students to use their own equipment. All our students have their own laptop for classes and most of the practical work. The recommended required machines are reasonably priced at €500. Manipulations requiring high calculation power are carried out remotely using the student’s laptop as an access terminal. The BYOD approach has a positive effect, empowering the student and making them responsible for their own equipment, while enabling us to focus on the dedicated systems for implementing CPU- or network-bandwidth-intensive applications.